I hadn’t thought of that! Mind, it is said less and less, I think. However, I can see that, with professional sports people, the celebrity culture and being in Big Brother making you ‘famous’, the idea that winning is due to luck and earning due to work is getting a bit blurred!
Here’s another silly question with the usual apologies.
I’ve been learning about Rwyt ti phrases - which I’ve been interested to see SSiW doesn’t seem to use - does that mean they’re not commonly used?
Anyway, I’ve been asked in my book to give a translation for “You can’t drink milk” - which would appear to be Dwyt ti ddim yfed llaeth
First, is that right? It suggests that in that context don’t and can’t are the same. Second, would it also be correct (common?) to say ti ddim yfed llaeth?
First question- you will hear “ti (whatever)” in speech far more commonly than “rwyt ti”.
To be honest, I’m surprised the course hasn’t taught both and stressed “ti” in speech, as it were- all the ones I’ve been on have.
Third question- it is common to use “ti ddim yn (whatever)” in speech. 
Second question - (out of order!) - I would think the translation of the Welsh there is “you don’t drink milk”, as you say.
[Something along the lines of “dwyt ti ddim yn gallu yfed llaeth” (or variant) being “you can’t…”]
Why do you say it appears to be a translation of “you can’t drink milk?”
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Well just from the context of the (badly-written) book chapter which has a bunch of phrases of the form Dwyt ti ddiim yn… and hasn’t yet given any other alternative phrases that it could be.
Sounds like a flaw in the book - as Owain says, ‘you can’t drink’ would be ‘dwyt ti ddim yn gallu yfed’… 
Probably hoping you could slot stuff together to make the sentence, as it were. Don’t worry if you couldn’t, certainly, and sounds like you’re not, which is great!
But yes, something like “dwyt ti ddim yn gallu yfed llaeth” is probably what they are after.
[edit- what Aran said, missed what he typed again!]
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Fair enough, thanks guys. Maybe it is just a curve ball intended to confuse students - gallu is introduced 3 chapters ago, but not in the context of can/can’t (says it is able/not able) and not in the context of these phrases.
But of course what you’ve said makes a lot more sense than this book, which is uniformly rubbish. Not to mention very strangely arranged.
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Why do text-book writers of a certain ilk never choose to use one word if they can use more? I can and I am able would appear to me to mean the same, but your book’s writer says. “gallu = be able” not ‘can’ or even “be able/can”.
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To use the word ‘can’ to me has two possible meanings in English with a different way to say both in Welsh so I would say that ‘gallu = be able’ is ok.
‘Can I go outside?’ For instance could be
- ‘ydw i’n medru mynd allan?’
- ‘ga i fynd allan?’
One is asking ‘do I have the ability to go outside?’ Is the door locked, do my legs work, etc. while the other is sort of asking for permission to go outside.
Just my take on it though, I may be wrong.
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Maybe we’re being a bit unfair to a textbook, which can only ever be a snapshot of something as complex, changing and living as a human language. Faced with something of that complexity, you have to start learning it somewhere. I just think the choices they’ve made and they way they’re presenting the information is poor.
One has the answer, “You can - you are physically capable (and, hopefully mentally capable)”. The other is the question, “May I?” and the answer is “You may!”
Unless the language has really changed around me to the extent that what was wrong is now right!
can you ever give yourself permission to do something? I may?
This is interesting as a sidethought; I wonder if one could use a phrase beginning Nac ydw without responding to a Ydw question, in the sense of an angry parent saying to a child’s unspoken question “no, you can’t go out until you’ve finished your homework!”. Maybe you’d just say ti ddim yn somethingorother.
Sorry that shouldn’t be ydw. Ydy?
‘Na chei, chei di ddim’ would be a common structure in that sort of situation…
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beth am: paid meddwl am fynd mas nes i ti gwpla dy waith di. or something like that with appropriate corrections for my welsh
I won’t, I promise.
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didn’t see that coming
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It’s very, very common to drop the â in spoken Welsh, so the original here is fine.
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